School Chaos - not sure what to think

This is long and I am sorry for that:

DD school, was merged with another school, we knew this was happening. It was "supposed" to make only a difference of losing the principal and music teacher (which we loved), and adding at most 2-3 kid per class from K - 5. Well as of yesterday I know the full scoop and I do not know what to think of it.

There is now one dedicated grade one
One Merged grade one & two
One Dedicated grade two
One Merged grade two & three
One dedicated grade three
One Dedicated grade 4
One Merged 4 & 5
One dedicated 5

By the luck of the draw, my DD who started grade two is in the merged two three room. The good side of this is the teacher could not keep her busy in grade one, so she may be challenged in this class. Maybe. However I also notice that the grade three-ers that are in it, are mostly the special needs kids that are more at a two level anyway. I just do not know what to think. I am trying to think positive, but this totally shocked us, we were not told about this, and it was not in the newsletter home.

Also the teacher told me that they received their class lists at 4:30 the night before school was scheduled to start. DD room, did not even have enough desks for the kids in it. There will be 26 kids in her class supposedly.

A teacher having to teach both grade two curriculum and grade three curriculm sounds like a lot when you are trying to keep 26 kids under control and give each the individual help needed.

I just do not know what to think.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You are a good mother to have concerns about the new situation at your DD's school but You have such a bright little girl, she is sure to thrive in school this year. Don't worry so much; everything will work out. Give your worries to GOD so you can enjoy your life and family more. Give that little one a hug and tell her to be the best she can be.
9:18 PM
Cheyenne said…
When I was in first and second grades, it was in a one-room schoolhouse. First through fourth grades were taught by one teacher, and simultaneously fifth through eight grades were taught by another teacher. My brother and I did not turn out to be idiots. I went on to do very well the remainder of my school years, even taking some college law courses.
I guess it's the old adage of "life is what you make of it."
I don't know how these things work in modern day. But back then, everything eventually worked out well.
We did not, however, have what they call slower kids amongst us. Well, they might have been, we just didn't know it back then.
12:35 AM
Paula... said…
Our school used to have all composite classes and they went back to straight grades a couple of years ago. I found the problem with one of my DD's classes was that 80% were grade 1 and only 20% grade 2. The curriculum is aimed more at the Grade 1's and didn't prepare my DD well enough for the following year in Grade 3 - she really struggled and we had to work extra hard to get her grades back up there. She went from being top of the class one year to below grade average the following year.

I much prefer straight grades!!!
1:06 AM
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